All we need now is Noah and his ark!

This summer has been one of the wettest in British history with major floods in the north of England back in June now surpassed by the flooding of the midlands and south of England in July. Last week produced rainfall on a scale hitherto unparalleled, certainly not for many years with the consequence that the water levels of the River Severn, the Avon and the Thames have risen to dangerous heights, bursting their banks and whatever feeble flood defences we have in place.

So far, thankfully, no one has died this month as a direct result of the floods although a few died in June following the flooding in Yorkshire, but the devastation has to be seen to be believed. Three counties, Worcestershire, Gloucestershire and Hereford have have massive swathes of land underwater and at Tewkesbury, where the rivers Severn and Avon meet, the whole area almost from Tewkesbury to Gloucester looks like the Florida Everglades for mile upon mile.


Above is the town of Tewkesbury. This is normally a land mass connected by trunk roads and a motorway. Today its an island!

Above - Combrook village high street!


The Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford -on- Avon -advertising a water ballet I should think!




Over 3000 people have been evacuated from their homes and , as I write, 350,000 people are without power or drinking water.

This is not one of those periodic British flood inconveniences - this is a catastrophe, a disaster, the cost of which is,as yet,incalcuable. What is worse is that the rain hasn't stopped. In the flooded areas more rain is forecast until the weekend adding to the problems already faced by thousands. In Oxfordshire, too, our Environment Agency is watching anxiously as the River Thames reaches record levels and, as the rain comes down it is continuing to swell ominously for lot of towns which border the river from Oxford down to London.

These could be the worst floods, certainly in the land mass affected by them, for over 150 years. Is it climate change? is it just a freak horrible summer in that enigmatic element, the British weather? Who knows....but what is clear is that Government has some hard thinking to do.

While the Environment Agency has estimated that it will cost Britain £1 BILLION per annum to maintain the level of flood defences we need in the future allowing for the increase in these types of weather patterns, a leaked document has shown that the Government is still considering building more houses on flood plains. Already we have 5 million people at risk from flooding when conditions are this adverse...but there's the rub...how often does this happen? And how often is it likely to happen in the future?

This is the terrible quandary always faced by the British. It's like the moans when our trains pack up in icy weather because the tracks are not protected or the trains malfunction. If only life was clear cut as it is in Canada or Siberia. You know its always bloody cold in winter so you HAVE to pay the money to protect against it. If you live in Central Africa or India you have to pay to protect equipment which will malfunction in the heat. Britain has the benefit of generally a mild but unpredictable climate, thus we never spend money on anything which is only needed in extreme conditions. We just shrug our shoulders and live with the inconvenience of breakdown and cancellation when those occasional extremes hit us.

But can we carry on doing that? Can we afford to live with the risk of flood water, if the climate IS changing, which paralyses half the country and involves millions of pounds in sorting out the damage?

Government and scientists need to get their heads together pretty damn quick and make a very prompt decision about whether we are to put our hands in our pockets and pay for this protection....or are we going to struggle with years and years of flooding like this.